Nokia Preparing All-New Windows Phone 7.8 Hardware?

New Windows Phone hardware is about to arrive that will run Microsoft’s latest Windows Phone 8 software, while we’ll see the “lite” version, Windows Phone 7.8, come to some existing WP7 models. Simple, enough, right? Well, according to some insider sources, we could also be getting some brand-new hardware that arrives right out of the door running WP7.8 instead of WP8, and Nokia’s supposedly working on just such a model, going by codename Glory.

Glory would be a sequel of sorts to the lower-end Lumia 610, sporting the same 800MHz single-core processor and 256MB RAM. In fact, the only change that seems to be taking place with this rumored Glory hardware would be moving up from the 610’s 3.7-inch display to a slightly larger 4-inch component.

This raises some interesting questions about the future of Windows Phone 8 gear. Just how low-end will budget-priced WP8 models get, before manufacturers turn them into WP7.8 models, instead?